Update: Very excited to be returning to Berlin from the 22nd to the 25th of February. I'm available for acting lessons for arias on the 22nd with three slots available.

Recent feedback for my book Acting for Opera which is now on Amazon.

"Easily one of the most important books on the subject of acting for opera. The concepts contained herein are foundational and fundamental to the craft of acting. This is an important book for performers at any level of their professional and artistic development". James Marvel, Opera Director and Head of Opera, University of Tennessee"Amazing and succinct, back to basics "how to" book for anyone looking to enhance their craft of acting.What a clear, succinct, and great back to basics book for singers interested in performing opera. I recommend it to all who are interested in completely learning the entire craft of performing opera. What Mr. Cooley is saying could have come out of my own mouth and has many times. Acting is acting. There is no separate kind of "acting" for opera. It is definately not becoming emotional, which affects the voice, but learning how to truthfully portray the emotions so you can take your audience on a journey. After all, that is the job of all performers, telling a great, honest, believable story while taking your audience on this amazing journey!​Buy it!!" Carol Kirkpatrick ariaready.net

"It was a great honor to collaborate with Norman Cooley this week for his Berlin masterclasses on opera acting. His teaching and book are highly recommended and we hope to welcome him back to Berlin very soon". Tim Ribchester - Berlin-Based Coach and Accompanist​"Norman's performance coaching work here was very well designed and adapted closely to the requirements of the course. He was happy to work with colleagues to adapt and refine and his work with the students was pitched at the correct level. The course developed over the two years and students worked in the second year to build on the topics covered in the first year. This was largely to teach the vocal students dramatic and interpretive skills to prepare them for the operatic stage. His teaching was very successful with the students; their skill set improved dramatically and it gave them a firm basis on which to build for their first stagework in opera chorus during Year Two.He is a constructive, positive and collaborative colleague."Prof Lynne Dawson - Head of the Vocal Faculty - Royal Northern College of Music​

"Norman helps to free us from the chains of our 'practice' and lead us through the gateway to our 'performance' ". - Shannon Roberts - Berlin-based Soprano

"I really enjoyed Norman's masterclass; he has a lot of enthusiasm and good ideas which helped me to approach my arias more imaginatively and with more confidence, particularly for audition purposes." - Angelina Billington - Berlin-based Soprano

"I found Norman’s course wonderful and it provided me with necessary tools so that I can create characters independently in the future. I have realised through working with Norman the essential skill of using my imagination to create new colours in the voice and communicate the text effectively for an audience. It has improved my confidence on stage and how I view my relationship with my teachers and coaches in lessons. I would have no hesitation in recommending him."Charlotte Hoather - Soprano - RCM PG

"You should teach in every young artist program on the planet!" - Antonia Denavit - Soprano

"Acting for Opera was a great course to attend, it combines both theory and quickly followed by practical exercises to help embed that knowledge. I found it useful to gain and build upon my basic acting skills, to help develop a character and to express this to the audience. I came away from the course with a fresh approach of how to do my research for an aria, work on it in the practice room and then develop for a performance. I would recommend this course for any young singer before or after music college." ​- Jennifer Rust - Soprano

"Norman’s Acting for Opera workshop has been so helpful to me as a young opera singer. The class has given me the skills to really start to play with my repertoire. Whether in the practice room, in rehearsal or in performance, I now feel that I now have a basic box of tools to help communicate what my character is saying. Whether in opera or song, I am looking at texts in a new way, trying to understand what, why and how it is that I am communicating and through Norman’s guidance am letting the emotion flow through that, rather than the other way round. This has had surprising extra benefits to me as not only is this helping with clarity in my performance, I feel that it is helping me learn and memorise music faster and helping battle against performance anxiety too. I can’t recommend the course enough to singers starting out in the profession as well as those singers working professionally who want to develop their acting skills." - Erika Madi Jones - Soprano

"I will definitely be recommending this training to my students and colleagues. It was great to get some training from an actor/director. I will be applying all the tools learnt to singing in general, not just opera. All of the characterisation exercises and stagecraft applies to concert singing and especially art song. The use of comparative videos to aid understanding was particularly effective, and I noticed the course was presented to suit all three learning styles." - Ella Fontaine - Mezzo Soprano

"The Opera Chorus Coaching Workshop we held hosted by Norman Cooley was a great success. Our chorus members were given the opportunity to explore the potential that their own individual characters could bring to an ensemble. The presentation showing examples of different choruses and the various ways to move together to create a powerful picture was very useful and working together as a group on a familiar piece was thoroughly effective. We look forward to working with Norman again."- Cork Operatic Society

"I just wanted to say a big thanks for coming over to work with Opera Foundry. As a recently formed, innovative opera company, we are committed to developing and supporting our talented singers, by providing performance opportunities and experiences through which they can develop their singing and acting skills. Your tailor made workshops were pitched very well and allowed useful participation and discussion for all singers alongside the practicals. A great deal of ground was covered in the sessions and we aim to work on a number of the important points discussed over the next few weeks during our rehearsals. Thank you for sharing your vast acting knowledge with us and making the sessions very relevant and interesting to our work as singers and performers. We look forward to working with you again!"- Elaine Way, Soprano and Artistic Director, Opera Foundry

"I'm a bass singing professionally and internationally, and I found this workshop very helpful." - Ugo Rabec - Bass

"I’ve been fully through music college twice as a singer, once in London and once abroad and in neither college was acting for opera discussed. It was merely assumed that you could either act well naturally with no instruction or were simply no good at it and beyond help. So it was great to work with Norman on the things that we should know, but don’t, like the importance of correct gesture, of coming to each performance as if it were the first time you'd sung that work, to be spontaneous and able to react to circumstances and to move around the stage looking the part. The YouTube videos of famous singers acting (or in some cases not acting) were a revelation as I’d never before thought to question the onstage acting of big name stars. Norman’s acting improvisations were quick and quite tough but really got the brain working, which is what you need to be able to do live onstage – stay alert and in control. Finally the practical part of the day where I got to sing and act was incredibly useful and will help me a lot, especially in audition situations. It’s a great value day packed with information, don’t miss out!" - Julia Arlen - Soprano

"Norman is a wonderful trainer. He has a real passion for acting. He is encouraging and supportive of all the singers he works with. Norman sets up a warm and comfortable atmosphere to explore and play. Something I greatly valued. The workshop was delivered with clarity and precision." - Anna Koukoullis - Soprano

"I enjoyed the youtube video examples as it allowed me to visually see what was being explained and clearly see an obviously bad example of acting in opera as opposed to a natural believable one. With the Maria Callas, Tosca video it was really interesting to see how easy it is to allow the music to help define the your character and the acting which I think will prevent me from over-acting and combine both the acting and musical aspects together more naturally. The breakdown of stage language was useful as well and how to use it in shorthand as well was very helpful." - Beatrice Acland - Soprano

"I was particularly interested in a couple of the theoretical aspects, especially the idea of making each performance "new", i.e. not acting is if you know what's going to happen in the story. Plus the idea of making on-stage interaction more "physical" -- the bouncing ball exercise was a revelation. At a more detailed level, I have wrestled with the issue of gestures a good deal and I found our discussion of this very helpful. Plus general issues of stage-craft, how to move on stage etc.""It will definitely make me think even more about the story of the opera and the character I am playing, and the idea of "thinking" the relevant thought at the right time. It will also help me with gestures and visual presentation, which is something I have wrestled with a good deal." - Stephen Cviic - Tenor

" If anyone is dithering about whether or not to go on this course - DO IT! It's amazing how much information and practical experience is packed into a single afternoon""Critiquing the YouTube clips beautifully reinforced the training and showed that even the experienced professionals don't get it right sometimes! We were given the tools to understand WHY something doesn't work as well as HOW it should be done"."Yes, undoubtedly, as your own love of the subject was infectious. It was also clear that you cared about each participant - gently drawing in those who were perhaps more reticent or nervous. I think everyone who went to the course would have left feeling involved and pleased at having had a chance to 'have a go'. The singing practical session at the end was great! You were really able to show how small differences in how you acted an aria hugely affected the authenticity of the performance and the engagement of the audience. I'm sure the singers who took part must have left feeling so encouraged!" - Sam Green - Soprano

"The workshop was really helpful and I learnt so much that day. Nowadays College doesn't talk about things about period anymore and I was so impressed by all those information! Those slides are brilliant, I kept it with me and they reminded me a lot of the theory and the exercises that we have done that day, not often do we find printout in a workshop and I like it very much. I really think working on an aria is something that really worth doing, you made me understand how systematic and how clear it could be with the hand gestures! I will definitely apply everything I learnt that day to my singing."- Jessie Tse - Soprano

"The most useful part for me was the information about gesture. I learned how gesture and musical phrasing go together, how you should avoid symmetry and blocking off communication by crossing your arms or looking down. I also think the information on historical periods was really useful, we learned how to sit whilst keeping our backs straight and how to walk with a train. I think the integral thing was that communication is the key to acting for opera, and it's important to tell the story as if you, the character, don't know how your story is going to end. A really good exercise for this was the exercise to show a situation and also a relationship - this showed the importance of proxemics, body language and gesture." - Elysia Allsopp - Soprano

"This course came at a perfect time for me to refocus my singing. It is much more difficult outside of a music conservatoire to maintain a constant level of discipline and professionalism when approaching music learning. It has helped to reminded me why I chose to pursue singing. Every opera and character fits into a historical context and has an important story. It is such a physical and emotional art form that the story should be moving through both sounds and sights. I would absolutely recommend this course to others and I already have! It is wonderful value for money and great fun. So much information to process and apply. A very inspiring day." Heather Lupton - Mezzo soprano

"I have a much better understanding of how to tell a story, believably and will be researching the "back-story"/history of my character and the opera, much more than I have done in the past. I have worked for years in operas and operettas and always felt that I was "getting away with it" as far as acting was concerned. I will be much more confident in my acting skills on stage, now that I understand the process of getting the thought, rather than the emotion. I have also often observed other singers and wondered why I wasn't convinced by them. This is something that I will be applying to improve my own audition pieces. There were also lots of very helpful practical tips involving stage-props and costumes which I will use. Norman Cooley is obviously a very accomplished and experienced presenter/trainer and this came across throughout. His delivery was always clear and he allowed opportunities for questions, where appropriate. Everything was easy to understand and the content was helped by the handouts/OHP.Throughout the afternoon he kept my whole attention, with his style of teaching. The workshop was made more interesting by Normans' obvious passion for what he does. (There is nothing worse than a bored, tired presenter/trainer!)" Joanna Wilson - Mezzo Soprano

"I will certainly be starting from the text now! As a pianist, it has always been about the music, so this was my starting point. Of course, being a singer, it has to come from the words; after all, they are what the composer composed from. The importance of having a back story for your character and knowing what was going on historically at the time the opera was set have been made really clear. All these things are imperative in making your character 3D, believable and readable on stage". There are a lot of thought provoking points which you can take away with you and play with. As acting makes or breaks a performance and there seems to be little guidance on this aspect of opera, it is a pretty important opportunity for any opera singers." Camilla Jeppeson - Soprano

"Lots of very useful stuff. The demonstration of real interplay of relationships and emotions, rather than a false gesture and no relationship to the others". "Not cheating your audience (or yourself) of one's development at all stages of the plot" "To introduce your character, create surprise in a scene as you don't know how it will end" "To 'Think, look, move, sing'. Look for the good AND the bad in villians and in heros. The vocation of good craftsmanship! "That is just a random selection, but I could really pick from a huge array of things we learned that I enjoyed and found useful!" Alex Banfield - Tenor

"I think workshops like this should be a must for all aspiring opera singers!""I'm inspired to commit more to a character's physicality and gesture accordingly. Also to build convincing dynamics with other characters on stage"."All of it! But, if pushed to single out something, I'd say the coaching on gestures. Also the period influences on a character's physicality and the discussion concerning the relationships between different characters - their similarities and their differences.I thought the games we played were very useful... as were the time and place and status/relationship scenarios and discussion on storytelling." "...it was all extremely clear and thorough. The point that the fundamental reason to be a convincing character on stage and not to short change the audience was made inspiringly." Antonia Cviic - Soprano

"Thinking about the development of a character, meaningful gestures and stagecraft exercises. I think you could almost do a whole session on stagecraft, as often these essential skills are not taught! It was really useful to analyse other people's performances, both on YouTube and 'live'." Helen Clutterbuck - Mezzo soprano